


On The Road Again

by ballpoint



Category: Marvel 616, New Avengers - Fandom
Genre: Character of Colour, Chromatic Character, Community: fic_promptly, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-12
Updated: 2010-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:34:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ballpoint/pseuds/ballpoint
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for the prompt Marvel Comics, Luke/Danny or Luke/Jessica, on the run again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On The Road Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Muccamukk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muccamukk/gifts).



> Disclaimer:Characters and situations are the property of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. No profit is being made off this fan-written work.

The distinct notes of Jimmy Hendrix piped through the radio, tinny and static as if it was being beamed from an AM frequency all the way back in 1968. Just as well, Luke thought, as he rousted himself from the bed where he shared with Jess. This building they were staying seemed to been decorated around the time of Woodstock and privation. The mattress hard, and he was damned sure that there might be bedbugs sharing their damned sheets. He was just glad that Dani had her portable cot right there at the foot of their bed.

Luke pulled his vest off, wishing that the air wasn't so close, making the sheets cling to their sweaty limbs due to the busted a/c.

Huh, Luke thought, as he stretched, rolled his shoulders, getting the kinks out of his muscles. They sure as hell weren't in Stark Tower any more, and wasn't that some shit.

The clock hanging on the wall busted, broken at 12 o' clock, and Luke remembered another time when he sat down, waited for the minutes to slough away like sand through an hour glass, for the SHRA to come into effect. That happened three months ago, another 12 o' clock, another lifetime ago.

Luke heard and felt Jess stir before she even had the chance to grunt. "Wha'? Why are you awake?" she roused herself into awareness, quickly sitting up, and grabbing her pullover and keys. Jess, ready to jump to attention and in their car before she even woke up.

"It's nothing, girl," Luke murmured. "Easy."

"Dani wake you?" Jess whispered, scrambling across the bed to peer at Dani still asleep. In the dim light of the room (lit by the neon lights advertising rooms available 24 hours), Luke watched as Jess dropped beside the cot to peer at Dani, a sleeping bundle of hair and a lightweight Dora The Explorer blanket. Absently, Jess wiped a hank of hair from her face, focusing on nothing but their daughter, as she followed the curve of Dani's cheek with her crooked knuckle, not wanting to wake her up, but needing to convince herself that Dani was still _there_.

Not that Luke could blame her, touching Dani as if she were a sort of talisman, a kind of weight in this world, since everything else mutated so suddenly into _difference_.

"If Dani didn't wake you up, what -?" Jess started, as she straightened up, her hand at the small of her back. "Oh," she finished, as she came to sit beside him, the radio now playing _Crimson and Clover_.

"If you want to take Dani and register with the SHRA, instead of us doing this, I'm all right with it."

Jess stopped humming to the jangled riffs of the song. From this angle, he could see her profile, her hair tussled by sleep, hanging in unkempt hanks because it needed a good wash. Her pullover, a faded and ratty one from a few lifetimes ago stopped at the top of her thighs, her legs and feet bare.

"What? And miss this road trip?" she said in those deadpan tones he knew well. "I like dirty sheets, and unidentified animals in my shower. Besides, hot water is kinda overrated anyway."

"I never wanted this for us," Luke shook his head, the words bitter in his mouth. "When I joined up with the Avengers, I didn't expect this. It was bad enough being a fugitive on my own, but my wife _and_ kid?"

"It won't be forever," Jess shrugged her shoulders. "Besides, even if it is, Dani having a Canadian accent won't be a bad thing, eh?"

"Girl -"

"And think about the healthcare. This could be our ship, Luke. Leaking, riddled with bullets, but still, it's our ship."

Luke laughed for the first time that day, and if it wobbled and broke at the edges, Jess never noticed. She only linked her fingers with his own, as _Going Up To Country_ came on, with the high, sweet sound of flute. Together, in the small, hot room of the motel with nothing but themselves and their sleeping child, they might have sang a few lines.

 

_I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go  
I'm going up the country, babe don't you wanna go  
I'm going to some place where I've never been before  
I'm going, I'm going where the water tastes like wine  
Well I'm going where the water tastes like wine  
We can jump in the water, stay drunk all the time_


End file.
